Excellent first weekend!

Hi Everyone! Finally getting into some sort of a routine as I settle into my flat which I got on Thursday...I should be getting the internet in my room soon so I will be able to post some pictures of my first week here in Finland!

So far I have been having a great time...there have been a lot of parties and meeting new people from all over! I have three flatmates: 1 is from Germany, 1 is from France and the other is from Taiwan...they all seem to be very nice girls and so far we all get along really well and are getting used to each other!

This past weekend, Steve and I went to Turku, a student town here in the south of Finland. My Finnish friend Kaisa goes to school there and she let us stay with her. We arrived on the train on Saturday (the train is 50% for students...we paid only 10euros each way for a trip of almost 200 km!) and then walked around Turku. It's a beautiful old city, as it used to be part of Sweden and is a port city...some of the architecture goes back to the 11th Century which was great for me because I have never seen such old buildings! After sightseeing all afternoon, we relaxed a bit and then went over to one of Kaisa's friends' houses and hung out (and drank of course, lol) with a bunch of Finns...this was great for me because here in Tampere, it is easy to get to know only International students when you wourself are an international student.

Sunday we awoke a bit late and Kaisa made us a great breakfast...while we were getting ready to leave to catch our train, Steve was online and found out that the Canadian Women's Hockey team was playing in the final game of the Four Nations Tournament in another town closer to Tampere called Hämeenlinna...we quickly decided to take a detour home, got our train tix changed and headed to Hämeenlinna to catch the gold medal game between Canada and the USA! We were very excited about this...to see hockey again and to watch our home country kick butt against the US was so much fun (Canada won the game 2-1 and won the tournament).

Finland has been really great so far! I've been slowly learning my way around the town...I've only gotten lost once or twice...I've definitely learned not to try and take any shortcuts until I get to know my neighbourhood better! My first class is today--Elementary Finnish--so hopefully after a few days, I will be able to teach everyone a few words! Here is what I know so far:
-Moi, or moi-moi (pronounced moy-moy) means hello as does Terve...
-Joo (pronounced yaw) means yes
-yliopisto means university
-ateria means meal, as in Big Mac meal, lol...
-Kiitos mean thank you
-Kippis means cheers

Very small vocabulary, but hopefully that will change!
I'm off to class now...I promise to have pics on the internet soon!

Love, Jules :)